Chicken Cordon Blues

You’ll have to speak up quite a bit, because right now I can't understand you. We are having our floors replaced and between the noise and chemical fumes, everything seems a little fuzzy. We’ve only been planning it for five years, so really, the chaos is perfectly logical. The contractor told us we would lose our kitchen for a week, but somehow we never made the connection between that and needing to eat out. I suppose we just planned on either fasting, relying on our friends and relatives to host us or manna. Although option #1 would have been a good idea for the parents, we instead chose option #4 eating out and thought we’d offer a few critiques of the local culinary scene.

Jack suggested that we seek out a local Italian restaurant in Arlington as most are just chains. Our first choice was Angelo’s, located on 303 near Collins Street. Our first impression was a nursing home, but that soon gave way to the folksy friendliness of the waitresses and other five patrons who were nice enough not to sample our entrees when they were mistakenly delivered to their table. The food was actually pretty good, in a 1960s Italian sort of way, iceburg lettuce swimming in dressing, texas toast with garlic butter and heavy red sauce. The staff couldn’t have been nicer. In the end, we agreed that the ambience was “not too scary” but we do recommend going during daylight hours.

Our other forays are listed below.

Whataburger- best fast food burger, worst french fries, slowest drive through ever. Skip the fries, hit the burger with Tabasco and try to forget all about Grampa Farty Pants doing their ads. Note to all UT students: he is not Walter Cronkite.

Taco Bell- nothing has changed. Stick to the economy menu for dependable comfort. The new printed order board has boosted their average to about 5 out of 6 menu items correctly. The drinks are still lousy, but better than they used to be. Supplement with good hot sauce and you’re in business.

Schlotzky’s- getting better. The order was correct and fairly fast. Still too expensive but nice for a change. Their salt-n-vinegar chips are the best.

Kentucky Fried- losing a step or two as they go too creative with the menu. The regular chicken doesn’t seem to have any taste anymore. Crust good, chicken blah.

Jimmy Johns- pretty good sandwiches in a hurry. I love all the neo-philosophical/motivational, psycho babble homilies on the wall. They are the first sub shop to recognize it doesn’t have to take a long time.

El-Fenix-enchilada dinner special still the best deal in town. Great chips and hot sauce. We love El-Fenix about once every 6 weeks or so.

The list goes on and on and is fairly grim. It’s too hot to eat outside, so we just sit down on the blanket in the bedroom and dig in, fumes and all. Knowing the carpet is going to be replaced has been fun though. One of the boys spews and sputters their drink on the carpet at some point during every meal, and the other 2 guys laugh and laugh. So far Lori hasn’t gotten the joke. The best meal of the week has been the one brought to Gusto and Jose by their wives, homemade tamales, enchiladas, rice and beans. We all just stood there with our mouths open carrying in our sack-0-burgers while they dug in around our kitchen table in the carport. We can't wait to cook on our new tile floor.